Read: 1 Kings 19:1-21; Acts 12:1-23; Psalm 136:1-26; Proverbs 17:14-15
When Ahab got home, he told Jezebel everything that happened on Mt. Carmel. Elijah had returned to the city because he thought it was safe and he thought he would be a hero. That couldn’t be further from he truth. Jezebel was furious that Elijah had killed all her prophets and she sent word to him that his life would end as theirs did. He fled to Beersheba. He went into the desert and sat down under a broom tree and prayed to die. If he really wanted to die he could have stayed in Jezreel and Jezebel would have obliged him. He really didn’t want to die, he just wanted God to know how disappointed he was in the outcome. We can relate!
An angel woke him up and had a cake of bread and water for him to eat. He ate it and went back sleep but the angle woke him again and told him to eat more because he would need the strength it would give him for the journey he was about to encounter. He did and the journey lasted 40 days. It ended at Mt. Horeb. Horeb is a mountain range that has Mt. Sinai on it. I would bet that Mt. Sinai was the mountain he climbed. God asked him what he was doing there and Elijah complained of his zeal for the Lord and how he was the only one fighting for God. (Can you hear God giggle?)
God told him to stand on the mountain and watch because the Lord was going to pass by. A powerful wind came, then an earthquake, then fire, but God was not in either of them. Then God came in a gentle whisper. God asked him the same question and got the same answer. God told him to go back to the Desert of Damascus and there anoint Hazael king over Aram and Jehu king over Israel and Elisha to succeed him as His prophet. God was going to use these three people to rid the nation of evil. Then he told Elijah that he had 7,000 people in Israel who had not bowed to Baal and still worshipped him.
Elijah found Elisha and threw his mantle on him and left. I know you have heard the expression, “don’t burn your bridges behind you” just in case you need to walk back on them. Well, Elisha did exactly that. He burned his plow and sacrificed the oxen he was using to plow. He was saying that he would never return that way again. He would never come back to farming because being a prophet was his destiny and there were no Plan B’s.
In Acts, our reading begins with Herod killing James the brother of John and ends with God killing Herod. Vengeance is the Lord’s and he does repay.
When Herod saw how pleased the Jews were when he killed John, he caught Peter and put him in jail till after Passover when he was going to kill him also. God had other plans for Peter. God sent his angel to rescue Peter from jail. Peter stopped by Mary’s house and told the disciples of his miraculous escape before leaving town. The next morning the jail was in an uproar. The jailers lost their lives because they couldn’t save Peter from angels. How funny! Herod gave up finding Peter and went to Caesarea where the people called him a god. He accepted their praise only to be struck down in front of them. Long live the king!
I can’t help but see what an important role angels have in both of our stories. Angels are at work all through our day to protect, lead and guide us to our destiny. Thank an angel today!
Lord, thank you for our angels that are assigned to us. Thank you for your great government of heaven that rules the earth. You are in control of every nation, tribe and people. To your name be the glory!
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